UMBC's Devan Hibbs Overcomes Scoliosis to Become Retrievers' Top Defender

The UMBC Retrievers season ended on Saturday with a 6-5 defeat to the University of New Hampshire, but all year redshirt junior defender Devan Hibbs has been a leader on the and off the field.

At the age of 13, Devan was diagnosed with a case of Scoliosis after her school nurse discovered the back abnormality during a routine screening. After visiting with her doctors, they saw that the top of her spine had a curvature of 32 degrees while the bottom was at 18 degrees. A person without Scoliosis has zero curvature of their spine.

The doctors decided at the time to not put her into any types of treatment as she was considered an older case of the abnormality. They would check on her back three times a year to monitor the spine. As she was growing up, she continued to play sports, becoming an excellent lacrosse player at Downingtown West, in Dowingtown, Pa.

“I didn't let [Scoliosis] hold me back from my everyday activities,” Hibbs said. She decided to continue her lacrosse career at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

As a freshman in 2010, she saw limited action, appearing in eight games including one start picking up two groundballs and causing two turnovers.

After the season was over, Hibbs went for her normal check up on her back. The doctors looked at her back and saw that the curves got much worse with a 62 degree curvature at the top and 32 degrees at the bottom. Surgery was needed immediately. She had it done in June of 2010 but would have to sit out the entire 2011 lacrosse season.

“They went into my back and put 12 screws and two rods while giving me a bone graft,” said Hibbs, whose spine was straightened out in the procedure. Hibbs was told to take it easy throughout the 2010-2011 school year, which required her to make a few changes. Unable to sustain any weight on her back, Hibbs transitioned from a regular backpack to a wheeled version.

She returned to working out slowly before being fully cleared in the summer of 2011 to begin training for the following season. Outside of facing the challenges presented by beginning a workout regimen after taking a year off, she and her teammates were also faced with a coaching change at UMBC as Amy Appelt and Tony Giro were named the Co-Head Coaches.

“I didn't expect much out of her,” said Giro. “You enter the year knowing that she's coming off a major back injury and didn't know what we had with her.”

Coach Giro's hesitation was warranted as in the fall it was discovered that Hibbs had a stress fracture in her back. Her doctors told her that she had to quit playing lacrosse due to the injury.

Unwilling to accept the diagnosis, she went out to find a second opinion, which revealed it was a stress fracture that she had before the surgery. The scar tissue around it would allow her to continue to play lacrosse.

Hibbs returned to the field for the 2012 season and hasn't come off of it, starting all 16 games of the 2012 season and 15 games in 2013. She became one of their top defenders, finishing with 14 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers.

Hibbs's leadership skills are evident in more than just her work on the field.

“Devan is our hardest worker on the field and off the field,” Giro said. “She continues to show our team how to get things done by being the first one to a workout and staying after practice to watch extra video. She also takes the underclassmen under her wing and shows them how to take care of things.”

The season might be over for the Retrievers but they have one of the best leaders in the country coming back in 2014 as they hope to challenge for the America East title next season.